At the start of July 2011, comparethemarket.com launched their “Simples Rewards” scheme, where any customer registering on meerkovo.com will receive one of 6 meerkat cuddly toys based on the characters featured in the campaign.

The brand has invested in a significant multi-platform campaign alongside the cuddly toy promotion, including a TV ad in which the meerkats come to the UK for the first time and interact with human characters.

Buzz around comparethemarket.com saw significant rises throughout July, with scores climbing from 13.2 on 4 July to 21 points by 21 July. Other elements of the brand's equity also increased, contributing to rises in their Index score. General Impression was at 12 points on 4 July, but was 10 points higher (at 22 points) on 21 July. BrandIndex’s advocacy measure – Recommend – rose from 12.4 to 22.4 over the same period.

In a competitive marketplace where consumers’ sentiment can easily change, giving customers something material to keep and enjoy might just be the key when it comes to generating loyalty.

The Index Score:
Every day, 2000 BrandIndex respondents rate brands either positively or negatively across 7 measures to provide a unique set of measures (Quality, Value, Reputation, Impression, Advocacy, Satisfaction and Buzz) on brand perception. For each one, the proportion giving a negative answer is taken away from positive to give a single score that can range from -100 to +100. All but Buzz (a measure of how positive or negative the “noise” around a brand is) are combined to form an Index score – a comprehensive measure representing a brand’s health.